Friday, June 20, 2008

LONG RUN FRIDAY.

One hour 31 minutes 39 seconds. And now I'm at work. A lovely day.

This is definitely a sign of progress. Just getting the run done in the first place, no whining, complaining, procrastinating, or backing out. I was actually looking forward to it. And then being able to walk after, go up steps, AND go to work. Amazing.

Just six months ago, if I had even thought of doing something like this, I would have been pretty much wiped out for the day. Not that it won't catch up to me at some point, but I'm feeling pretty good right now--no sore feet; no tight knees; no overwhelming fatigue; no problems. For the past year and a half, I always had to plan my long runs on a Saturday or Sunday, just so I had the rest of the day to recover. And if it was longer than 1.5 hours, I needed the rest of the weekend to recover and be able to go to work on Monday. Finally, after so much time, I can say I am seeing things turn around. I have struggled with this lack of energy or bouncing back after a workout for so long, I was getting very frustrated thinking it would never improve. I don't know how it will translate in my 1/2 IM in SIX WEEKS (yikes!), but I am still a little more hopeful than I was even a month ago. I am cautiously optimistic, however. I still always think something bad is going to happen every time things start going good for me.

Why did I do a long run on a weekday? Because Saturday, Chiarunner (God I love having a local blogger around!) and I will be volunteering at Johan's Trifest Olympic distance triathlon. I have done this race twice, but have volunteered 4 other times. Its kind of an expected thing since all the tri-geeks from here are either on the race committee or are doing the race themselves. So it will be my one volunteer opportunity for the year.

I passed on doing the race because I didn't feel ready to tackle the bike course. Not that I couldn't do it, just how fast was a question, and how fast I could recover. And while I know speed is not always a factor, for this race, it is. I have been the last person or one of the last to finish this race both times I have done it, leaving a somewhat negative memory for me, and making it hard to want to "go there" again. And my second reason was deciding not to clutter up my schedule with races I wasn't ready for just to do a race, which seems more sensible this year, and needing to focus on the one race I am signed up for that will matter the most.

I think Cindy Jo will be there, so we'll have another "local" blogger there.

And good luck to all the tri-geeks doing IMCD this weekend! I hope they do well and don't freeze on the swim!

6 comments:

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Good job on the weekday long run! I remain on a weekend long run schedule because weekends are when me and my husband do Indian buffet, and I like to load up on saag paneer. :-)

Born To Endure said...

I woo wanted to come over and do Johan's race..I decided on the HFP race in Ohio.sorry...say Hi to everyone for me please..I miss ya'll!!!

chia said...

I'm so excited for tomorrow :-) I love the peeps that are there for me at the end of a good race and it's so cool to think that tomorrow I can kind of "give back" to the community a bit. Thanks for asking me to join in on the fun!

I just hope those icky motivational tri-germs don't rub off on me. I'd hate to be infected with the urge to excel in THREE disciplines :-).

Unknown said...

excellent work on the long run. and thanks for volunteering at your local olympic race...volunteers rock!!

it's great that you're seeing progress. :)

Lily on the Road said...

Good for you and Chia to volunteer, I love any and all who volunteer at the races I do, boy without them, there wouldn't be a race!! I always say "Thanks" to them....

Have fun!

Anne said...

Sounds like quite the go-to event, whether you tri or not. It's wonderful you get can in that much mileage before work. I'm jealous.